100 Skip Class, Say Air Conditioning Makes Them Ill

More than 100 West Orange High School students claiming school air conditioners were making them ill skipped Tuesday morning classes to protest outside the school.

About half of the students returned to school by mid-morning. Others went home or to fast-food restaurants on West Colonial Drive. Some protested throughout the school day.

The protest, which started across from the Beulah Road school, moved to the shade under a Florida's Turnpike bridge. Some students climbed up to the turnpike to wave protest signs at motorists.

The students were peaceful, and the protest resulted in no arrests. About a dozen Orange County deputy sheriffs arrived to keep the students in order. They wrote a few traffic and parking tickets to the students.

''Half had no intention of coming to school today,'' said assistant principal Dave Stanley. ''The other half had a concern. . . . I recognize their right to protest.''

The protest centered on the air conditioning, which students believe is causing respiratory problems. Within an hour of arriving at school each morning, they said, students begin wheezing and coughing. Their noses run and their heads ache.

''I had a persistent cough,'' said 11th-grader Lacey Bordenkircher, who was wearing a dust mask around her neck. She said the mask was for show. ''I am now very short of breath throughout the week.''

Lacey returned to school at 9:30.

Stanley said the controversy arose two weeks ago when a teacher became ill.

''The doctor questioned from the initial test whether it was the environment here or something else that caused the illness,'' he said.

School officials sought immediate tests by the district, the county health office and a private company. The tests found no bacteria or viruses. Meanwhile, doctors realized the ailing teacher had pneumonia that was not caused by the school, he said.

Teachers, who did not know of the tests, circulated a petition urging the school to seek them. Students said they, too, spread petitions.

Stanley said the only problem with the air conditioning is that the ducts were moldy. Maintenance workers cleaned the ducts last week. Air quality tests are planned next week.

Students said they planned the protest because they felt their complaints had gone unheeded.

Word of their plans reached Principal Sarah Jane Turner on Friday, and she addressed students and teachers through closed-circuit television. She invited anyone with concerns to talk with her.